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Ryan Sachire Named To USA Tennis Collegiate Team

June 1, 1999

SOUTH BEND, Ind. — Notre Dame junior All-American men’s tennis player Ryan Sachire (Canfield, Ohio/Canfield HS) has been named one of six collegiate players named to the 1999 USA Tennis Collegiate Team for the second consecutive year. The USA Tennis Collegiate Team, an elite training program for the top American collegiate tennis players, is administered by the United States Tennis Association and the Intercollegiate Tennis Association with the six members chosen based on United State citizenship, dual-match record, NCAA singles championship, final ITA collegiate rankings, performance in ITA collegiate grand slam events and sportsmanship. Florida’s NCAA singles champion Jeff Morrison, Harvard’s top-ranked and NCAA runnerup James Blake, Washington’s Robert Kendrick, Virginia Tech’s Aaron Marchetti and Stanford’s Ryan Wolters also named to the team.

Sachire finished the regular season ranked No. 3 in the country with a 37-9 overall singles record and a 23-4 mark at No. 1 singles. In the fall Sachire joined former Irish All-American David DiLucia as the only men’s tennis players to reach the final of an ITA grand slam. Sachire fell to Blake in the title match of the ITA All-American championships in October. He also won the consolation singles draw at the Rolex National Intercollegiate Indoor Championships in February. He earned the third seed in his third appearance in the NCAA singles championship to become Notre Dame’s first two-time ITA All-American since DiLucia. Last year as a member of the USA Tennis Collegiate Team, Sachire won the singles title at the USTA Futures in College Station, Texas.

The USA Tennis Collegiate Team will travel to the Black Hawk Country Club in Danville, Calif., for a training session June 12-17. In addition to competing in USTA professional circuit events, members of the team will also participate in the ITA National Summer Championships presented by the USTA at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Va., Aug. 11-15. The men’s and women’s singles and doubles winners of the ITA National Summer Championships, the pinnacle of the ITA Summer Circuit, are given wild cards into the U.S. Open Qualifying Tournament by the USTA. Team members also will receive coaching at USA Tennis Circuit events, a travel grant for the summer and consideration for wild cards. Tim Cass of College Station, Texas, the men’s coach at Texas A&M, Ian Duvenhage of Gainesville, Fla., the men’s coach at the University of Florida, and Dave Borrelli of Fresno, Calif., the former women’s coach at the University of Southern California, will serve as coaches for the men’s team. The program is funded by the USTA.

As the governing body of collegiate tennis the ITA promotes both the athletic and academic achievements of the collegiate tennis community. The ITA, which is based in Princeton, N.J., administers the ITA Collegiate Grand Slam Championships, the ITA Collegiate Summer Circuit, presented by the USTA, and the ITA Rankings for men’s and women’s tennis at the NCAA Divisions I, II and III, NAIA and Junior College levels. The ITA also has a comprehensive awards program for players and coaches to honor excellence in academics, leadership and sportsmanship.

Founded in 1881, the USTA is a not-for-profit volunteer organization with 500,000 individual members and 6,000 organizational members. As the official governing body for tennis in America, the USTA uses its $154 million annual budget to train and encourage tennis players of all ages and skill levels. The USTA presents the U.S. Open and sponsors teams for Davis Cup by NEC, KB Fed Cup and the Olympics.